„The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (…) announced the launch of a new online, open access curriculum, “Copyright for Librarians” (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/copyrightforlibrarians/), developed in conjunction with eIFL.net. “Copyright for Librarians” aims to inform librarians about copyright law in general, as well as the aspects of copyright law that most affect libraries, especially those in developing and transition countries.“

This book intends to give a comprehensive view on virtual community participation. With the power to gather people with similar interests together, virtual communities have gained attention by not only practitioners, but researchers, as well. Various studies have been done to explore why people participate in virtual communities since it is only after aggregating a certain amount of members that a virtual community can be viable. Virtual community participation refers to those behaviours in which members mainly participate. Basically, past researchers have found two types of behaviours: lurking and active participation. Although many studies discussed the motivations to participate in virtual communities, including gift economy, pursuit of power, sense of belonging, sense of inclusion, relationship building, and so forth, none of them have given a clear and comprehensive framework on the reasons for virtual community participation. As the field is now in a position to call for a synthesis publication to integrate all aspects of virtual community participation theories, it’s important to edit a book to give both researchers and general virtual community practitioner the theoretical guidelines. This book will bring together the issues that managers, practitioners, and researchers must consider when planning, implementing, and managing members in virtual communities.

The DIY Book Scanner community (founded in June 2009) has produced a diverse ecosystem of book scanning hardware and software to address a wide range of human needs, both domestically and internationally. Daniel will motivate these efforts with case studies from the community, and hope to foster discussion on the future of digital books in light of these unmet needs.

Mrz

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„Microsoft released its new identity management software at the RSA conference on Tuesday and is working on a prototype national ID card system in Germany that is designed to give consumers control over the amount of personal data they share with specific organizations.“